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That's one of my thoughts too. Another incentive would be if you don't fight, your wish gets... cancelled.

Wish for the entire thing, the sources of witches and magical girls and the magical critters who contract them and everything else all the way up the chain of cause for these things to all have never existed.

Regarding Homura and Mami. I've just realized is Kyubey the only one who can make magical girls? Or there are others? If so, we know that Mami got contracted to Kyubey but, did Homura make a contract with Kyubey too?

Here are a few theory I considered... assuming of course that there is a linear projection of time without any parallel dimensions or reality warping (sigh you know there something to be said when you consider this before making a theory ^^).

Theory A1
Assuming that Kyubey is the only one who can make contracts like that It means Kyubey originally made Homura a magical girl but their relationship went sour somehow and Kyubey contracted Mami somewhere in the future.

Of course, this does not explain Homura's apparent fascination with Madoka and foreknowledge. The mos simple plot and well the most unlikely in my opinion.

Theory B1
Assuming that there are others who can grant this contract beside Kyubey. Homura is acting like a rival and maybe trying to discourage the other contractors recruitment process. The black cat in the OP is Homura's contractor.

Theory B2
Assuming that there are others who grant this contract again beside Kyubey. Homura is a shape-shifting version of Kyubey and is a contractor. But, instead of making magical girls she instead fight the witches herself and looks down on Kyubey for using innocents in the fight and would like to hinder his efforts.

I think that Madoka and Sayaka are both generally good-natured and well-intentioned. However, we haven't seen them have to deal with a significant moral quandary yet, so this is admittedly going on a "first impressions" basis.

The sense I get is that Homura and Mami have a sincere moral conflict between them (as opposed to a
black-and-white moral conflict where one is simply being evil), probably related to the costs tied to being a magical girl in this universe (and whether or not those costs are worth the personal and societal benefits that come with being a magical girl).

Now, I could be wrong, as it's not hard to see where this story could reveal Mami as a major antagonist, but by the same token, it's also not hard to see where this story could simply have a sincere difference of moral opinion between Homura and Mami (i.e. think of Spiderman and The Punisher debating over whether or not it's right to kill criminals; that kind of sincere difference of moral opinion).

There are two interesting factors that, when considered together, paint a possibly revealing picture:

1. Homura more or less told Madoka that if Madoka wanted to keep her friends and family safe, she shouldn't become a magical girl.

2. Mami is living alone. ...Why is a ninth grade girl living alone? Did something happen to her family due to Mami being a magical girl?

I know that a teenager living alone is not unusual for anime, but it is unusual in real life, and this anime is very much aiming for a certain degree of realism it seems to me. Consider how Madoka and Sayaka openly discuss and state the sort of practical concerns and considerations that we'd expect a real life person to have if given a chance to be a superpowered being who fights a dangerous battle against extraordinary threats.

Madoka Magica really does hit a nice, happy, and eminently believable balance between the sort of incredibly selfless and gutsy enthusiasm of a nine year old Nanoha (while I liked that a lot, I can see why some would find it hard to swallow), and the sort of bizarre annoyance at having superpowers showed by many other magical girls.

All-told, I'm very much enjoying this anime. This is definitely the anime of the Winter 2011 season that I like the most. My only complaint is the same as Reckoner's (the witch of this episode was not as impressive as I had hoped), but then this is SHAFT, so I'm prepared to take the typical bad with the typical good that tends to come with SHAFT.

Wherever this story goes, I'm looking forward to watching it unfold. That being said, I hope that Mami isn't revealed as an outright villain in this. Given how many people are already more or less predicting that, I'd prefer a less predictable sincere moral conflict route, where Homura and Mami have opposing, but understandable, positions.

I think that Madoka and Sayaka are both generally good-natured and well-intentioned. However, we haven't seen them have to deal with a significant moral quandary yet, so this is admittedly going on a "first impressions" basis.

The sense I get is that Homura and Mami have a sincere moral conflict between them (as opposed to a
black-and-white moral conflict where one is simply being evil), probably related to the costs tied to being a magical girl in this universe (and whether or not those costs are worth the personal and societal benefits that come with being a magical girl).

Now, I could be wrong, as it's not hard to see where this story could reveal Mami as a major antagonist, but by the same token, it's also not hard to see where this story could simply have a sincere difference of moral opinion between Homura and Mami (i.e. think of Spiderman and The Punisher debating over whether or not it's right to kill criminals; that kind of sincere difference of moral opinion).

There are two interesting factors that, when considered together, paint a possibly revealing picture:

1. Homura more or less told Madoka that if Madoka wanted to keep her friends and family safe, she shouldn't become a magical girl.

2. Mami is living alone. ...Why is a ninth grade girl living alone? Did something happen to her family due to Mami being a magical girl?

I know that a teenager living alone is not unusual for anime, but it is unusual in real life, and this anime is very much aiming for a certain degree of realism it seems to me. Consider how Madoka and Sayaka openly discuss and state the sort of practical concerns and considerations that we'd expect a real life person to have if given a chance to be a superpowered being who fights a dangerous battle against extraordinary threats.

Madoka Magica really does hit a nice, happy, and eminently believable balance between the sort of incredibly selfless and gutsy enthusiasm of a nine year old Nanoha (while I liked that a lot, I can see why some would find it hard to swallow), and the sort of bizarre annoyance at having superpowers showed by many other magical girls.

All-told, I'm very much enjoying this anime. This is definitely the anime of the Winter 2011 season that I like the most. My only complaint is the same as Reckoner's (the witch of this episode was not as impressive as I had hoped), but then this is SHAFT, so I'm prepared to take the typical bad with the typical good that tends to come with SHAFT.

Wherever this story goes, I'm looking forward to watching it unfold. That being said, I hope that Mami isn't revealed as an outright villain in this. Given how many people are already more or less predicting that, I'd prefer a less predictable sincere moral conflict route, where Homura and Mami have opposing, but understandable, positions.

I agree with those points about gray chracters instead black and white. Unlike Nanoha this serie keeps me to the expectative of each episode release despite the animation given by SHAFT.
Now, what if a character who is full of malice appears? Oh, I reminded Kazumi Magica XD.

Well, call me pessimistic, but all my instincts tell me that Madoka is about to be dragged into a sucker deal without return ticket, and that Homura is the only person that actually means well with Madoka and Sayaka. Kyubey is actually the Master of Ceremonies of a nasty pyramid scheme, and Mami is merely one of the players entangled in this mess, just that she doesn’t warn Madoka/Sayaka to stay away – probably she has something to gain by doing so. Homura knows what’s up, since she was bitten by it, but she’s not going to be successful: Her warning won't be heeded.

By now I’m 90% sure that those “witches with grief seeds” are actually fallen Magical Girls. I’m 66% sure that Mami knows or at least suspects that, yet she stays quiet. “You’ve got to risk your life when you’re Magical Girls” says nothing else then “Be prepared to die”. Oh, and I’m 100% sure that you can’t just quit being a Magical Girl when you realized you’ve been played for a sucker.

So – what we have is a very compelling story, but I can hear alarm klaxons all over the place. Remember the wonderful family life of Madoka in ep1? Prepare for some major ruins. Should Mom be promoted to lead the company, it’s going to become very ugly. Mark my words.

Well, call me pessimistic, but all my instincts tell me that Madoka is about to be dragged into a sucker deal without return ticket, and that Homura is the only person that actually means well with Madoka and Sayaka. Kyubey is actually the Master of Ceremonies of a nasty pyramid scheme, and Mami is merely one of the players entangled in this mess, just that she doesn’t warn Madoka/Sayaka to stay away – probably she has something to gain by doing so. Homura knows what’s up, since she was bitten by it, but she’s not going to be successful: Her warning won't be heeded.

By now I’m 90% sure that those “witches with grief seeds” are actually fallen Magical Girls. I’m 66% sure that Mami knows or at least suspects that, yet she stays quiet. “You’ve got to risk your life when you’re Magical Girls” says nothing else then “Be prepared to die”. Oh, and I’m 100% sure that you can’t just quit being a Magical Girl when you realized you’ve been played for a sucker.

So – what we have is a very compelling story, but I can hear alarm klaxons all over the place. Remember the wonderful family life of Madoka in ep1? Prepare for some major ruins. Should Mom be promoted to lead the company, it’s going to become very ugly. Mark my words.

You're not pessimistic. I agree with you.

Geez, quotes from Faust is all over ep. 2. Ep. 1 contained a Faust quote also apparently if you looked at the wikia breakdown. This just screams badness ahead for Madoka.

@Mentar:
To make it worse, how about Kyubey outright lying about saving the world? If there are no magical girls then there are no witches then there are no threats to the world. Kyubey is just some kind of parasitic demon in (well duh) pyramid scheme to siphon the power of the heart of the girls at the expense of the girls and the world.

... or even worse, he's not even a parasite at all, he makes the magical girl scheme to drag the world into destruction faster by turning girls against each others. remember Bokurano? Kokopelli and Dung Beetle are full of this kind of malice.

this makes me wonder why Homura doesn't go all out in killing both Kyubey AND Mami, morality be damned for the world is itself is at stake. perhaps Homura needs that power for something else, and she can't afford to kill Kyubey. Or even far worse, while Kyubey can be damaged by magical girls' power, he ultimately can't be eliminated this way. there's no way to stop this vicious cycle.

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If there's a Final Fantasy game that I must put my personal seal of disapproval on, it's Crisis Core. I mean, just look at how this Genesis Rhapsodos dude is raping the canon. It's bad. As in, fanfiction bad.